SHL The
SHL (Swedish Hockey League or
Svenska hockeyligan), founded in 1975 as Elitserien, is the highest level of men's ice hockey in Sweden, the second-most attended (in average attendance) sports league in Sweden (after
Allsvenskan), and as of 2006 is the fourth-highest paid hockey league in the world.
Attendances The SHL club with the highest average home league attendance per league season:
HockeyAllsvenskan HockeyAllsvenskan is the second tier of men's ice hockey, and has by far the highest average attendance of second-tier ice hockey leagues in Europe.
Hockeyettan In
Hockeyettan, teams do not compete nationally, but rather break into four divisions/groups organized geographically. These smaller divisions play half a season together, after which the more successful teams in the four divisions join two new groups, organized geographically into "Allettan North" and "Allettan South", and play the rest of the season in the new groups. Meanwhile, the teams in the four beginning groups that did not qualify for Allettan continue playing in the original groups, with the poorest performing teams being forced to defend their spots against the winning teams from
Division 2 in the qualification tournament known as
Kvalserien. The two Allettan winners battle for a direct spot in the
Kvalserien for HockeyAllsvenskan in a series known as Hockeyettanfinalen. The teams ranked 2–9 in each Allettan group, the loser of Hockeyettanfinalen and the winners of the continuation groups qualify for a three-round playoff where the final three remaining teams qualify for the same Kvalserien. These four teams are joined by the two worst
HockeyAllsvenskan teams to battle for two spots in the following HockeyAllsvenskan season.
Tiers 4–7 All leagues in Swedish ice hockey after Hockeyettan are organized regionally. There is
Hockeytvåan, the fourth tier. Most regions also have Hockeytrean. The eastern region also has Hockeyfyran.
Stockholm also has a seventh division, Division 5, and has also briefly had an eighth, Division 6.
Timeline DateFormat = mm/dd/yyyy ImageSize = width:1400 height:auto barincrement:20 Period = from:01/01/1920 till:07/01/2029 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal PlotArea = right:30 left:0 bottom:50 top:5 Colors = id:D1 value:rgb(0.6,0.9,0.9) id:D2 value:rgb(0.6,0.9,0.6) id:D3 value:rgb(0.9,0.9,0.6) id:D4 value:rgb(0.9,0.6,0.6) id:D5 value:rgb(0.9,0.6,0.9) id:D6 value:rgb(0.9,0.9,0.9) id:line value:black id:bg value:white PlotData= width:15 textcolor:black shift:(5,-5) anchor:from fontsize:s bar:1 color:D1 from:07/01/1921 till:05/01/1922 text:
Träningsserien (1921–1922) bar:2 color:D1 from:07/01/1922 till:05/01/1927 text:
Klass I (1922–1927) bar:3 color:D2 from:07/01/1922 till:05/01/1927 text:Klass II (1922–1927) bar:4 color:D1 from:07/01/1927 till:05/01/1935 text:
Elitserien (1927–1935) bar:5 color:D1 from:07/01/1935 till:05/01/1944 text:
Svenska Serien (1935–1944) bar:6 color:D1 from:07/01/1975 till:05/01/2013 text:
Elitserien (1975–2013) bar:6 color:D1 from:07/01/2013 till:end text:
Swedish Hockey League (2013–Present) bar:7 color:D2 from:07/01/1999 till:05/01/2005 text:
Allsvenskan (1999–2005) bar:7 color:D2 from:07/01/2005 till:end text:
HockeyAllsvenskan (2005–Present) bar:8 color:D1 from:07/01/1944 till:05/01/1975 text:
Division 1 (1944–2014) bar:8 color:D2 from:07/01/1975 till:05/01/1999 text: bar:8 color:D3 from:07/01/1999 till:05/01/2014 text: bar:8 color:D3 from:07/01/2014 till:end text:
Hockeyettan (2014–Present) bar:9 color:D2 from:07/01/1941 till:05/01/1975 text:
Division 2 (1941–2014) bar:9 color:D3 from:07/01/1975 till:05/01/1999 text: bar:9 color:D4 from:07/01/1999 till:05/01/2014 text: bar:9 color:D4 from:07/01/2014 till:end text:
Hockeytvåan (2014–Present) bar:10 color:D3 from:07/01/1941 till:05/01/1975 text:Division 3 (1941–2014) bar:10 color:D4 from:07/01/1975 till:05/01/1999 text: bar:10 color:D5 from:07/01/1999 till:05/01/2014 text: bar:10 color:D5 from:07/01/2014 till:end text:Hockeytrean (2014–Present) bar:11 color:D4 from:07/01/1951 till:05/01/1975 text:Division 4 (1951–2014) bar:11 color:D5 from:07/01/1975 till:05/01/1999 text: bar:11 color:D6 from:07/01/1999 till:05/01/2014 text: bar:11 color:D6 from:07/01/2014 till:end text:Hockeyfyran (2014–Present) ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:5 start:01/01/1925 ==Women's leagues==